What kind of harrow to use in a horse rink?

Mark4510 · May 25, 2004

Rollerskate,
as you can tell by this thread there are a number of different options depending on personal preference. To me what drives this decision is: what you are going to use the arena for (what type of riding), how big it is, how much you are going to use it, and what the footing is. Richard is right, Kiser does most of the big name shows and for those types of arenas his drags work the best though they are pricey. If you are not going to use a sand type of footing then conditioning is probably a better way of going. Personally I don't think you can wrong with a rotary harrow. They do a great job regardless of the footing and, for me, they do a much better job than a chain harrow as they tend to level as well. Additionally, if you have fencing around your arena and overshoot a bit, they tend to bounce off the post rather than catching on it.

If you are going to use it a lot or cover rough ground, I would get the ones with replacable teeth. For my money Gibbs Manufacturing makes the best but they are in CA and shipping would probably be prohibitive.

One of these days I am going to post some pics of the low cost version of a Kiser drag I made. With water and replacable teeth my total cost is less than $500.

Rollerskate · May 25, 2004

Thanks for all the great input. Isn't one of these days like tomorrow? Post your creation Mark, I think a lot of people would enjoy seeing it.

We live in the northwest corner of Connecticut, so we do get the full extent of the seasons. Though we don't get the extremes that I am sure some of you are more familiar with. The ring is not to big, 85 X 120. They are starting to fix it up tomorrow and it should be about 120 X 120 when completed. For now this is a weekend place for us, though we are making plans to move there. So usage will not be a lot. However we do let our neighbor use it whenever she wants. My wife is into eventing. So the ring will be used for dressage and jumping.

For a top we are still investigating some options of which there are 4; 1) is limestone - it drains well and does not get hard. The contractor has used it for a number of properties. In the winter if you clean the snow off it, it warms and softens up nicely we are told. 2) is 3/8" stone dust. It is used by a couple of stables in our area. Our contractor is going to take us to see both types this friday. 3) is a mixture of sand and stone. They will mix it any way you ask them to. 4) At the stable we use now, they have a mixture of sand, stone and rubber. Seems like it got a lot more dusty once they added the rubber though.

We will keep the top at 2" - 4". We looked at one place that had almost 6". It was certainly hard for people to walk in and the horses did not look to happy about it either.

Cowboydoc - thanks for the name. My wife saw it and she thinks we may have a book written by him. She is off in hot pursuit to find it.

Soundguy · May 26, 2004

I'll just agree to disagree.

While i will agree that the rotary harrow is great for the job.. it has only been in existance for a small amount of time in comparison to organized equestrian events ( thousands of years? ).

I imagine if you pay close attention to what you are doing.. just about any tool can be made to work with satisfactory results.

Soundguy

Mark4510 · May 26, 2004

RollerSkate,
That is a nice size arena. We are in the process of adding another arena to our place and are looking at adding 3-4 inches of compacted base such as DG and then adding sand on top of that. We have had a lot of success with taking a mix of sand and small pebbles (nothing bigger than 1/4 inch). We run it 4" deep, water it heavily to get it to leech into the base a bit and then drag it to the depth desired. For the type of riding we do, that is generally 2-3" deep. By running this combination we are able to get back onto the arena pretty quickly after a rain.

For me, its always fun working on this sort of project....best of luck.

have_blue · May 26, 2004

( I think you are off base saying a disc is not a good areena maintenance tool. )

Agreed!

Especially if the arena is in bad shape as the OP says.

If it were me, I would disk it up fine, level it if necessary, pack it hard with a roller or just a heavy tractor, and then run a fine tooth harrow on it. From then on, just a drag harrow or even a chain harrow... whatever it takes to keep it in shape.

cowboydoc · May 26, 2004

Read the original post. Rollerskate said he was going to have the arena completely reconditioned and wanted to know what to do to keep it in good shape. If that arena is done right and has a good base 2-4" down and then you put 4" of sand, crusher, etc. on top and use a disc on it you just ruined the thousands spent on that arena. Once you get a good solid base and put your riding material on top you never want to touch the base, except to keep it firm. You guys that are talking about using discs and such must only have a dirt arena. With a plain dirt arena, rodeo arenas for one, sure you can use a disc or whatever else. But if you are talking about a real riding arena that has been properly prepared you don't just throw anything on it and expect it to stay in top shape. You have to keep the base firm and at the same time keep the top from compacting and also keep holes from forming which is going to erode your base. It is not just throw whatever on it and it will be fine. That is the reason why all of these exact tools were made to be able to maintain an arena. The hardest thing I ever spent money on was for my Kiser drag. And it took alot of knocks on my head to get it through that you didn't just go out and disc up an area, harrow it over, and call it an arena. But since we've done everything right our injuries to the horses have gone down to almost none. Our horses are staying sound longer and when you have a $30,000-$100k roping horse, cutting, jumping, reining, etc. horse you can't afford to have them going lame. The money put into a good arena and a tool to properly maintain it is an investment. You can agree or not agree that doesn't change what is fact and what should be done to maintain a good arena.

Ledgemere Farm · May 26, 2004

Did you just say $30-$100,000? Do they have life insurance? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

have_blue · May 26, 2004

( You guys that are talking about using discs and such must only have a dirt arena. )

Yea, Doc you got me. I am ashamed to admit I only have a dirt arena. It's dirty dirt at that. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

You must have GOLDEN dirt in your arena huh? I'd sure like to walk on it if you would let me.

Say Doc, I bet you play polo with John Kerry, right? /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Trailblazer · May 26, 2004

After looking at cheaper options, multipurpose options and at building my own, I decided on a 6' Parma groomer. I made my decision after stepping back and looking at the total cost of owning horses, not just in terms of money but in time and energy as well. The upfront cost is a trivial addition to the total cost of owning horses.

It's a no-brainer for anyone in the family to operate. Once you have it set up properly, there's no danger of cutting into the base or sub-base. It's goof proof, saves time and does what it's meant to do very well.

Soundguy · May 26, 2004

( I would disk it up fine, level it if necessary, pack it hard with a roller or just a heavy tractor, and then run a fine tooth harrow on it. From then on, just a drag harrow or even a chain harrow )

That is exactly what I do.

Soundguy